The special ‘Latham rule’ used to boot MP out of Randwick racecourse

2 days ago 6

One-time prime ministerial contender Mark Latham was tossed out of Royal Randwick Racecourse by police under a new rule drawn up by the Australian Turf Club specifically aimed at him.

The independent NSW MP has threatened to take legal action against the club, which owns Sydney’s four metropolitan racetracks, claiming his eviction was payback for his campaign against the $5 billion sale of Rosehill Gardens.

Officers escorted him out of the racecourse’s Grandview Restaurant and off the premises in dramatic scenes on Epsom Day on Saturday afternoon during which another patron shouted: “Can I have his dessert?”

Latham said he was there as the guest of a member, having handed back his own ATC membership in June after being placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond over an on-course tirade at club executive Steve McMahon.

He was kicked out under the terms of a new restriction on guest passes which bans anyone suspended or terminated from club membership or – as was the case with Latham – anyone who had resigned their membership during a disciplinary process.

The board would “determine the length of this restriction based on the seriousness of the conduct alleged” and “members must not sign in or facilitate entry for such individuals”, according to the new conditions, which were contained in a communique to members about Chelmsford Stakes Day at Randwick on September 6.

Mark Latham is escorted out of Grandview Restaurant at Royal Randwick Racecourse.

“Breach of this restriction is a breach of the code of conduct and may result in disciplinary action against the member”, said the notice.

The 64-year-old Latham had sunk the boot into the race club as he cut ties with it earlier this year, saying it had “lousy customer service, incompetent management and a complete lack of collegiality”.

Eyebrows were raised when he later attended a race meeting at Rosehill and the ATC board moved to close a loophole in which he could still gain entry to members’ areas as a guest.

Latham on Sunday continued to protest his treatment at Randwick, where he had also been in the exclusive Chairman’s Club, adjacent to the restaurant.

‘I don’t understand where the ATC or the police get the power to remove someone from the racecourse.’

Bookmaker Robbie Waterhouse

He posted on X that he had twice entered with a guest pass provided a club member and “must be like T-800 to them”, referencing the killer robot played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator.

“The ATC has a sophisticated facial recognition surveillance system at each of its racetrack entry points, so they can refuse entry to anyone on their ‘excluded patron’ list. Which yesterday obviously didn’t include me. Not hard to put my photo in their system. At one checkpoint, the ATC staff said, ‘Hello Mr Latham, good to see you back’,” he said.

The member who invited him had not seen the email flagging the new restrictions about members’ passes, according to Latham, who said police officers had asked him to leave for being “quarrelsome”.

He claimed on Saturday night that an ATC director had gone out of her way to greet him and raised no issue with him being there.

The director, Annette English, told this masthead she had seen Latham sitting on his own in a grandstand viewing area next to the director’s room after a race and said hello to him out of courtesy.

Latham was initially asked to leave the members’ area by a staff member, before the police were called.

Bookmaker Robbie Waterhouse, who also opposed the sale of Rosehill, said Latham had come to see him while he was there.

“I don’t understand where the ATC or the police get the power to remove someone from the racecourse,” said the veteran odds-maker, whose wife is champion trainer Gai Waterhouse.

The new club rules do not prohibit an ex-member who resigned while serving a disciplinary sanction from watching the races in the public area.

After being marched out of Randwick early in the afternoon, Latham drove to the south coast in time to see a horse he part-owns, Winning Point, run in the seventh at Kembla Grange racecourse, which is operated by the Illawarra Turf Club. The mare finished eighth of a field of 10.

Latham was contacted for comment.

A fierce critic of Racing NSW and its long-time chief executive Peter V’landys, he has faced separate scrutiny from the industry’s controlling body over his run-in with McMahon, who was a key figure in the Rosehill proposal and was made interim CEO last month, following the sacking of club boss Matt Galanos.

Former Federal Court judge Steven Rares oversaw a two-day inquiry last month into the Rosehill incident but has yet to rule whether Latham, a racehorse owner, breached racing rules.

The ATC itself is also in the crosshairs of Racing NSW after being issued with a show-cause in September in which the regulator cited governance and financial concerns and threatened to replace the board with an administrator.

The Racing NSW intervention on the eve of Sydney’s flagship Everest spring carnival has been highly controversial within the industry and the race club has indicated it would issue a strong response.